St. Cloud Police Launches New Youth Hockey, Ice Skate Program

ST. CLOUD -- Members of the St. Cloud police department are hitting the ice in an effort to keep kids active this winter.

Ryan Sayre is an officer with the St. Cloud Police Department and supervisor for the Community Outpost. He says every winter the ice rink in Haws Park is hardly used and they wanted to change that by offering a new program to teach kids how to skate.

My first call was to the Herb Brooks Foundation, and I told them my idea and they were all for it. They donated all the skates, sticks, helmets, jersey's for the kids to use.

He says they had about 25 kids last week from the Boys & Girls Club of Central Minnesota come out and skate with members of the police department, St. Cloud State University Men's Hockey team and St. Cloud Norsemen hockey team.

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Sayre says the goal of the program is to make sure kids stay active, while continuing to build community relationships.

Kids are not getting out as much as they should be right now. This was one of our big projects to get them outside and get that rink used. What we want is to have equipment here at the COP House so kids can stop by check out the items and go have fun.

He say they plan to offer the free skate night every Thursday - weather permitting- from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and already have more kids interested in attending.

Sayre says it's their hope to expand the program to other ice rinks around St. Cloud if the demand is there.

St. Cloud State University men's hockey team plans to hold and outdoor practice at the rink in front of the neighborhood kids.